Beauty and decay – Abandoned sites by Niki Feijen

There is something very fascinating and mystical thinking about , what will happen after the human species disappears. The human race, which dominates this planet like no other creature and which heavily affects it in its development and its appearance.

Since humans and their influence is so evident on planet Earth, it is almost impossible to imagine, what it will look like when they’ll be gone.
This might be the reason why Niki Feijens photos are so compelling and simply breathtaking. For years now, the Dutch Photographer is going on expeditions all over the world, in search of abandoned places. Long closed fairs, hospitals, hotels or even entire cities, Feijen finds those deserted sites and photographs them.

The resulting photos leave the observer with a gloomy feeling, they bring back scenes of horror movies or even remind them that all things come to an end and humanity will too and that time will go on, that the world will keep spinning, no matter what.

Niki Feijen is an “urban explorer” who, specializes in photographing historic architecture and abandoned buildings. With his photos he points out the thin line between beauty and decay. The places he photographs; untouched, abandoned and decayed, do have a very special kind of aura. It’s almost poetic.

Asked on why he is so fascinated by photographing abandoned buildings, Niki Feijen said, that one of the reasons is, to be able to witness how in the end nature claims everything back. No matter how long humans dominated one place, once they leave, nature starts coming back, trees are growing in the middle of ruins and plants sprout out of walls.

In 2010 he got the chance to photograph on of the most abandoned places on earth, the Exclusion Zone in Chernobyl. The Area was evacuated within only a few hours in 1986, when the infamous nuclear accident occurred. On Feijens pictures it looks like the whole area has been frozen in time.

If you want to see more of Niki Feijens stunning pictures, you can check out his website, or buy one of his books: „Disciple of Decay“ and „Frozen“